P rominent t ajik f igures of the

Mamadkhonov, Hassan

Tajik author and translator Hassan Alikhanovich Mamadkhonov,

also referred to as Irfon, was born March 22, 1900, in Samarqand.

After finishing the gymnasium and two years of the Petrograd Com-

mercial and Industrial School, in 1919 he joined the only Tajiki journal

of the time, Shu'lai Inqilob (The Flame of Revolution), as a writer and

translator. During his long career, he served as translator, director of

publication, and language teacher. He retired in 1960.

Irfon's career as a translator and literary contributor began in 1926.

His translations were liked by Sadriddin Aini, to the point that he edited

some of the translations. Irfon's well-rounded knowledge of world lit-

erature allowed him to translate some of the best literatures of the world

(Gorkii, Defoe, and Tolstoi, for example) into Tajiki.

As a writer, Irfon followed Sadriddin Aini's example in the Reminis-

cences, Irfon wrote Du Yor az Du Diyor (Two Friends from Two Places,

1962) and Dar Kulbai Kosibon (In the Hut of the Retailers, 1964). The

latter is the first novel to deal with the lives of the merchant classes of

Central Asia and Khorasan. Irfon skillfully examines the social life, the

difficulties of labor, and the causes of the poverty, and with the revolu-

tionary zeal of the 1905 to 1907 era, calls the workers of all climes to

unity. These were the inhabitants of Herat, Samarqand, and the Fer-

ghana Valley, which itself includes Khujand, Quqand, Margilan, and

Namangan.

The new-method school was one of the major topics of discussion at

the turn of the century in Central Asia. The social, political, and eco-

nomic status of the region was, for a time, tied to this subject which,

after being mixed with religion, caused civil disturbances and, later,

civil war. Irfon was in support of the new-method school, and his works

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